June 2005

Medicalisation: Disease mongering

by Dr. Ben Lerner

The pharmaceutical industry is raking in unheard‑of profits ‑‑ more than three times the average of the other Fortune 500 industries ‑‑ even after counting in all of the research and development costs. Much of this is done under the guise that it's for the greater good. However, it's gotten so out of control that even the medical journals have begun to cry out for it to halt.

In 2001 all of the heavy hitters: the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and The Lancet put out an all‑points bulletin throwing up a red flag warning of the fact that clinical research had really become nothing more than a commercial activity (way of making money).

In an article entitled "Selling Sickness: the Pharmaceutical Industry and Disease Mongering," the British Medical Journal (BMJ) explored the depths of the disaster created by what it called the "medicalisation" of society.

Medicalisation is the medical industry's practice of turning commonly‑found symptoms into a "disease" so its members can prescribe a medication for it. In addition, the medical industry works to increase the awareness of its drugs and treatment to get more customers.

There is what's been described as an "unholy alliance" between pharmaceutical manufacturers and doctors who are informing the population that they are in fact ill. Doctors go to school to learn how to help. Nonetheless, due to the speed at which information is coming across a doctor's desk, and given how busy doctors are with their medical practices, they couldn't possibly keep up.

As a result, doctors are forced to rely on the greatly‑skewed opinions of pharmaceutical reps and the biased research paid for by their companies for their prescribing advice. I've heard it said that so much new information on medical treatment comes out each year that within four years, a medical doctor's training is obsolete. If you've ever seen a dozen policemen try and keep a stadium full of college kids from rushing the field after their school just won the big game, you'll get a slight idea of what medical doctors are being asked to handle in their careers. So, they've been taught since medical school to rely on the pharmaceutical manufacturers for reinforcement (help, support, education, and advice on practicing medicine).

In a 2003 publication, the BMJ said, "Twisted together like the snake and the staff, doctors and drug companies have become entangled in a web of interactions as controversial as they are ubiquitous."

A key strategy of the alliances is to target the news media with stories designed to create fears about the condition or disease and draw attention to the latest treatment, which has led to problems on several levels.

People with benign, normal symptoms are now taking dangerous drugs. As we are convinced that natural signs of aging and common conditions are diseases or treatable symptoms, we take drugs.

People are being tested regularly and undergoing unnecessary treatments with drugs and invasive surgery. Very few people after middle age can pass tests without being told that they have some sort of "risk."

Fear and the loss of clarity are important medical practices. As a result of "disease mongering," the more the medical industry influences a nation, the sicker that nation considers itself.

Worst of all, rather than people focusing more time and attention on their health as they age or see degeneration setting in, they instead settle for a diagnosis and the latest medications. The only winners are the ones who profit.

Here are suggestions from the BMJ on disease mongering:

***  Move away from using corporate‑funded information on medical conditions and disease.

***  Widen notions of informed consent to include information about the controversy surrounding the definitions of conditions and disease.

***  Lead people to participate in their health and not just in their disease. In other words, inside‑out versus outside‑in.

(Dr. Ben Lerner and Dr. Greg Loman created Teach the World About Chiropractic ‑‑ a coaching, seminar, and product company ‑‑ and Body by God Intl in an effort to change our culture and move the world toward the power of chiropractic thinking. Dr. Lerner is author of the New York Times best‑selling book, "Body by God: The Owner's Manual For Maximized Living." Drs. Loman and Lerner, maintaining two of the highest‑volume clinics in chiropractic, both have a new book coming out in August from Thomas Nelson Publishing.)